Crystal Stair
by ShyAnon
Summary: He himself had dug this grave for her, with small hands that no longer matched the massive ones gripping the cold marble. - Vergil's visit added.
1. Mother to Son

**I just felt like suddenly writing this...lol It's very very short, but I really like it a lot. Hopefully you will too!**

**Note: The Poem in here is called "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes. It actually inspired this drabble, plus I had been to visit my dad's grave the other day and realized how therapeutic it could be after years of not going to see him. I like the idea of visiting a loved ones grave as if you were going to their house for a chat when they were alive.**

**Any who, here you go!**

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"I know, I know. Late as always, but I have a legitimate reason this time." Dante said with a smirk as he walked towards her. He produced a large bouquet of flowers, mixed with all her favorites. "White lilies, yellow roses, white daisies and..." Dante pulled a red rose out. "Lady sends her regards."

He knelt down and placed a hand on his mother's headstone as he set the flowers on the soft grass. He smiled down at her.

"You haven't aged a day. Then again neither have I. Guess it's in our blood eh?"

Dante sat down to lean against the headstone, his arm propped up on his bent knee. He sighed as the sunlight warmed his face and the wind rustled the grass around him. How much he had missed coming to visit her, because here, in this place of quiet he truly felt her. He talked to her about Lady's obsession with weaponry, about the really good pizza he had at a new place that opened downtown, and of how he could not seem to get Agni and Rudra to stop fighting with Nevan. That had been a pay worthy fight to see. He promised to record the next one and bring it when he visited again.

He always said the kind of things to her that he would never say to anyone. It was a good feeling to have someone just listen, even if they weren't really there physically. He believed in the spiritual realm though, so her really sitting next to him wasn't so far fetched. Best of all she would never judge him which is why whenever he had a problem or an insecurity he would come to her. Like today.

"Look, the reason I came is because I'm not sure what to do anymore. I've lived a life of hunting, and now suddenly that kid comes out of nowhere. Sometimes it seems like fate is finally dealing me an ace. A way out of the business by passing it onto Nero and starting a new life just Trish and I."

He looked up into the blue sky before closing his eyes.

"Is it right though? I wish you were here to tell me what to do. You were always so good at problem solving. I sucked at math and so did you, but somehow we always managed to figure it out once we put our stupidity together," he grinned. "A part of me wants that quiet life where I can hang up my holster and say no more. After defeating Mundus though and running into The Order of the Sword I realized my path isn't so straight forward. What started as avenging your death has become its own monster. Killing Mundus didn't stop the violence of innocent bloodshed. Every day is something else and like it or not I'm one of few who can actually do anything about it. What would you want me to do mom?"

He turned fully to look at the headstone and a grin spread across his face.

When she had died all he had been able to give her was a stone slab to sit on her gravesite. In the past few years though he had saved up enough money to buy her a beautiful marble one in pearly white granite. Originally he didn't know what to put on it to commemorate her, but Trish had fixed that.

"I did some digging and I think it's appropriate," she had smiled as she handed over the piece of paper. Dante had agreed with her the minute he read it. Now, as he looked at the words scrolled in the stone he felt himself ease a bit.

"You always know how to help mom." Dante said as he bent forward and kissed the soft stone. "Maybe next time I'll bring Trish along and introduce you two." He stood to dust himself off before turning to look back at her with a renewed smile on his face.

As he turned to head back to his car the light shone off the front of the granite, illuminating the words engraved there. Dante's eternal answer to his every question when in doubt. Exactly what she was and would be to him.

_Well, son, I'll tell you:  
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.  
It's had tacks in it,  
And splinters,  
And boards torn up,  
And places with no carpet on the floor—  
Bare.  
But all the time  
I'se been a-climbin' on,  
And reachin' landin's,  
And turnin' corners,  
And sometimes goin' in the dark  
Where there ain't been no light.  
So, boy, don't you turn back.  
Don't you set down on the steps.  
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.  
Don't you fall now—  
For I'se still goin', honey,  
I'se still climbin',  
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair._


	2. Crystal Heart

**A lot of people said they wanted me to do a "Vergil" part to Crystal Stair but I wasn't sure his version would be as uplifting... and I was right. lol**

**This is Vergil's version of what he may do if he came to Eva's grave. I'm not fully sure how Vergil feels about his mother, but I'd like to think he both loves and hates her. He loved her when she was alive, and was pained beyond reason after she died. Somehow I see that pain turning to hate at being abandoned, or his own guilt at not protecting her making him bitter towards her.**

**So this kind of makes me cry...lol Poor dude. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

**Crystal Heart**

He watched from a distance, just far enough to ensure he wouldn't be sensed. Then again his brother was far too enamored with her headstone to notice him. He had always been too enamored to notice him...

Vergil waited until Dante had gone, watching him stride with a bright smile on his face back to his bike. His eyes fell, and it was only when the sound of the engine died in the distance that Vergil moved from his shady tree into the sunlight.

He walked cautiously towards the white hunk of stone to gaze down at it unmoved, and yet he set a hand upon it as he leaned forward.

She... his mother lay somewhere beyond this stone and once again Vergil found himself on this same road he took every year since he had rediscovered his twin alive. He himself had dug this grave for her, with small hands that no longer matched the massive ones gripping the cold marble.

"Always... It was always him first." He said softly down. "Yet in the end it was you and I."

It was he who had found her body, burned beyond all recognition. It was always him who was left to see the bitter ugliness in this world while Dante was spared. He had only come after she was laid to rest, never having to see her in his mind except as beautiful. Not the corpse he'd seen her become, an image he could not erase from his mind no matter how he tried.

Vergil glared at the words on her tombstone, an absurd eulogy to another wasted human life.

"You fought and struggled?" He whispered callously. "You gave up... and in doing so condemned us to this life without you. He is a fool to think any different."

He wouldn't kneel at her side like Dante, because he knelt for no one. He wanted to scrape those words off for the lies they were. Like he always wanted to, and yet he placed his palm flat against the soft stone lettering as if reading brail.

_Happy birthday Vergil... I love you._

Her song-like voice rang in his head as her once radiant smile blinded his inner eye. Why must such creatures be born to this life, only to be snuffed out like a beautiful candle amongst the dark and dreary world? She would've been better if she'd never taken breath at all, at least then he wouldn't have had to have loved her and maybe now he wouldn't have to feel this pain every anniversary of her death. He hated her for making him feel...

He reached over and plucked a single daisy from the bouquet left by his twin, kissed the soft petals and closed his eyes tightly. His hands shook as he kept his emotions in check even as the old wounds ripped open and exposed before her. Slowly he set the flower against the marble and squeezed his eyes tighter allowing only a single tear to leave his eye.

It was all he would ever give her, and even then it was probably the most he'd given to anyone. A single tear for every year she'd haunted him, for every comfort, kiss, and hug he would never get after she left him alone with her body.

"I hate you..." He said quietly as he lifted his hand to smooth the tear onto his thumb before wiping it across her name.

He stood to his full height and walked away without so much as a second glance back. He vowed he would never come again, yet somehow knowing his feet would find his way back here next year, and the year after... So many years to make him go insane with the need to see her and while openly mocking her tombstone, betraying himself by secretly uttering those three words...

I miss you...


End file.
